Howto VPN behind freesco

[caveman]

Hi,
At work we have a remote office that time to time we need to connect to the server that is there. The remote server is Win 2003 SBS. This server is configured to accept VPN connections. I have tested the connection from my home PC (where i dont have freesco, just DSL modem/router) and the link works fine, i connect to the VPN and get any file i need.

BUT,
PCs at work, that are behind a FREESCO v0.3.4 router, can not connect to the remote server with VPN, the connection times out.
Any ideas??

Config at work: PCs <> FREESCO <> ADSL MODEM/ROUTER <> INTERNET

[Lightning]

I am pretty sure that you need a PPtP kernel to get this working. In 0.3.8 and in the new 04x series the default kernel has multiclient PPtP and IPSEC enabled. I recommend installing a newer version on a floppy at work and trying it out. There is also the newer firewall mode of "symetric" in these newer versions needed to get some Internet appliances running like phone systems. But I doubt that will have any effect on your problem.

[caveman]

Thanks for the reply Lightning.

I though it would be somethink that had to do with the kernel or/and firewall.
Is there an easy way to upgrade to 4.x version? or it has to be all manual ?

There are a lot of settings that need to be kept, starting from the DNS, DHCP an goes on!!!

EDIT: will it work if i just download the 038 kernel from http://lewys-spot.dyndns.org/kernels/ , rename it and place it on /boot directory?

[Lightning]

will it work if i just download the 038 kernel

No it won't, the problem is that the 037+ kernels are not compatible with the 036- systems. There was some changes made in the networking kernel source that accomplished two things. One was to make the IPSEC kernel stable and the other was to change the networking data field a 32 bit number and it is that change that causes problems. You could try one of the 036- kernels with IPSEC enabled on your system as a test and see if it solves the problem. The only real issue is that on some systems those kernels were not completely stable. But if that solves the problem it would be a definite answer that the newer system would work as you want because they have IPSEC enabled by default so it is no longer shown as an option in 037+ kernels.

[caveman]

Well, as an update, i have downloaded the kernel-035.cd-ipsec-vipc from your site, and the VPN worked just fine!
I will plan the upgrade of the freesco in time to come.
It looks stable with the kernel as is though (uptime 36+ hours).
Thanks a lot.

Finaly, is there any easy way to upgrade?

[Lightning]

Finaly, is there any easy way to upgrade?

I guess that really depends on what you consider hard. Most complete installs only take about fifteen minutes for the base system. If you have packages that you want to keep as they are then you can upgrade to 038 and the packages will survive using the move2hdd command in "overwrite" mode. If you don't have very many packages then I would recommend the 04x series and just start from scratch. To make things as easy as possible it is best to generate a "report.txt" from your existing system and print it out. That way you have all of the necessary data for the new install.
In any case I strongly recommend making the new install using the ext2 package built into the package system on the floppy rather than any form of FAT file system.

[caveman]

As an update, i have moved now to freesco v.4.2 because the kernel i installed was unstable after all.
I downloaded, using the ftp server, all the necessary configuration files in my desktop PC, and formated the router using ext2.
Followed the new installation menu (much easier i have to say, but took some time to get used to it!!) and then copied my config files back
installed a few packages, and online i was.
VPN works fine with the default kernel, and the system seems to boot faster and has a faster respons in general.
In my v.3.x config i had a autoexec.bat to always scandisk on every boot, but now with ext2 and lilo this is done automaticly when ever need it.
I'm clad i moved on. I recomend it.

[Lightning]

I'm glad i moved on. I recomend it.

It takes some getting used to the new system, but there are a lot of new enhancements to make things easier to do things like install packages. I am glad your experience went smoothly and was not to traumatic